This application claims the priority of European Patent Application No. 00810816.9 filed Sep. 11, 2000, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a device for feeding printed products, e.g. folded or non-folded printed sheets, to a processing line. Such a device consists of a conveying means for a feeder, designed to remove stacked printed products individually from a neighboring magazine. A printed product is partially lifted off a stack and placed along a circular conveying path by a synchronously driven separating means acting upon a front side edge of the printed product in conveying direction. The conveying means is provided with a gripping arrangement with opening and closing control which takes over the printed product from the separating means by gripping it along the front edge in the conveying direction.
A device of this type, also called a printed-sheet feeder, is disclosed among other things in European patent document EP-A1-0 824 084 and can be inserted into a gathering machine for an adhesive binder, e.g. as disclosed in Swiss patent document
Printed sheet feeders of the aforementioned type are also used for so-called gathering and wire stitching machines, where the printed products are gathered straddling, one above the other, along a saddle-shaped gathering and processing line. With these machines, an opening device is installed downstream of the conveying means, which spreads open the printed products along the open edge. In the process, a saddle-shaped processing line is fed by respectively deflecting the printed products by 90xc2x0. With the gathering machine as well as the wire stitching and gathering machine, partial operations of this type require additional time, thus reducing the reliability of the processing mode.
The above-mentioned disadvantage is to be corrected primarily by avoiding a deflection of the printed products.
It is an object of the invention to correct the above noted disadvantage.
This is achieved by replacing the gripping arrangement mounted on the conveying means in the feeding region of the processing line and moving essentially in the same conveying direction, with a controlled gripping device that is arranged directly adjacent to the separating mechanism acting upon the front edge of the conveyed printed product relative to the conveying direction.
This can relate to a partially or completely open edge of the printed product, which forms the front edge in the conveying direction.
A simplified gripping arrangement can be obtained in this way and an additional auxiliary separating element, which is effective crosswise to the conveying direction, can be dispensed with, such as the ones used on gathering machines (Sheridan Rotary Gatherer) of the Sheridan Company in the United States.
According to one embodiment of the invention there is provided a feeding device for feeding a processing line with printed products, including folded or non-folded printed sheets, from a stack of printed products, said feeding device comprising: a conveying means defining a circulating path and moving in a conveying direction for conveying the printed products to the processing line; a synchronously driven separating mechanism for acting upon a closed fold or an edge of the printed product and operating to partially remove the printed product from the stack of printed products; and a gripping arrangement comprising a controlled gripping device attached to the conveying means in a feeding region of the processing line and essentially moving along in the conveying direction for taking over the printed product from the separating mechanism by gripping a front edge of the printed product relative to the conveying direction, wherein the gripping device is arranged directly adjacent to the separating mechanism, and the stack of printed products is arranged so that the fold or edge of the printed product is laterally closed in the conveying direction.